In the performance of musical and other theatric productions, it is often desirable to provide various special effects, including for example, flame effects. Given the safety hazards associated with producing actual flames in crowded environments, various efforts have been made to provide a realistic flame effect without the inherent danger associated with actual flames.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,989,128, an apparatus is described which uses water and air sprayed into a display area to form a wall of mist which reflects light, with the air blown by fans to create a curtain of turbulence, with the upwardly flowing air holding up the wall of mist and making light projected onto the mist appear to flicker to simulate flames. However, the apparatus is quite large, bulky, complex and costly to produce, and the simulated flames are of relatively low quality.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,685,574 and 6,802,782, other apparatus for producing simulated smoke and flames is described which utilize steam, and again, utilize large, bulky and complex apparatus, with the additional requirement to utilize heat to produce steam.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,762,897, yet another flame simulating apparatus is described which utilizes a steam manifold to produce a curtain of steam with a substantially uniform steam density, and as with the other prior art devices, relies of an elongated curtain generated by an elongated body with output ports distributed along the length of the elongated body so that a curtain of steam is produced adjacent to the outlet slot for substantially the length of the console. The requirement for a steam generator, as well as the other components requires that the installation and use of the apparatus be relatively permanent, and so while useful in fixed applications, the apparatus has limited usefulness with for example, a short play or musical production.
While various devices and methods are known for producing simulated flame effects, these suffer from complexity, cost, and lack substantial portability, and what is needed in the art is a portable flame simulating device and method, and one which produces improved three dimensional flame simulation as compared to the relatively two dimensional flame images utilized in the prior art.